CommentaryThe original design for Manik Bagh Palace (Garden of Precious Stones) was by the English architects Mackensie & Co. The German architect Eckart Muthesius, commissioned by the Maharaja in 1929, absorbed part of this unfinished structure into his own design adding rust-red awnings (now defunct) in part to obscure the ›Jacobean Style‹ veranda that remained from the original building.

The palace gardens were the original site for the proposed pavilion to house the three versions of Brancusi’s ›Bird in Space‹ sculptures bought by the Maharaja between 1933 and 1936. The semi-secular, semi-religious pavilion, variously referred to as the ›Temple of Meditation, Deliverance or Love‹, was a long held dream of Brancusi’s, one that seemed to coincide happily with the Maharaja’s plans to modernise the Hindu faith. The site for the project later shifted to the banks of the Narbada River near Maheshwar following Brancusi’s visit to the area in 1937-38 and was to be dedicated to the memory of Maharani Sanyogita who died unexpectedly on the 18th of August 1937. Brancusi’s plan was to channel river water through his building, creating an island within the interior. It was proposed that the space would only be accessible to one visitor at a time.

Provenance2008, Galleria Franco Noero, Turin

Obj_Id: 31,212

Obj_Internet_S: ja

Obj_Ownership_S (Verantw):Painting, Sculpture, Media Art

Obj_SpareNField01_N (Verantw): 188

Obj_Creditline_S: Musuem Folkwang, Essen, Skulpturensammlung

Obj_Title1_S: Manik Bagh Palace, Indore, the former home of Maharaja Yeshwant Rao Holkar Bahadur, now the Office of the Commissioner, Customs & Central Excise, Madhya Pradesh